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"If you're going to panic, do it fast and beat the crowd." ~ Jesse Livermore

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Pressure on Spain as IMF seeks action on weak finances

Pressure on Spain as IMF seeks action on weak finances
Irish Times
The focus on Spain comes as pressure on Italy persists, even after euro zone leaders sought to contain the spread of contagion from the debt crisis by expanding the remit of their bailout fund. A deepening political crisis in Cyprus has also raised new ...

Dollar Suffers Another Selloff
Wall Street Journal
By JAVIER E. DAVID NEW YORK—Weak US data and anxiety over a looming deadline to avert afiscal crisis hit the dollar, pushing it to a new record low against the Swiss franc as investors doubted the world's largest economy would escape a potentially ...

IMF chief worried over protracted debt cap fight
gulfnews.com
On Thursday Lagarde said in an interview with US television network PBS that failure to resolve the US debt crisis would likely raise doubts about the dollar's status as the world's prime reserve currency.

Greek bailout Mark II – it's a default
Malaysia Star
Of the 109 billion euros from the new bailout (together with the IMF), 35 billion euros will be used to buy collateral to serve as insurance against the new bonds in exchange, while 20 billion euros will go to buy Greek debt at a discount in the ...

What eurozone leaders are doing about the debt crisis
The Guardian
Finally, it is imperative to bear in mind that this is not a crisis about the euro. In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, all developed countries are faced with increased public debt. Given the interdependence of these economies, ...

One Chart To Explain the Entire Financial Crisis
Benzinga
At a recent post at the SayAnythingBlog, Donny Baseball writes that if you had to look at just one chart to understand the entire financial crisis, it would be the chart above. Here's some additional commentary: "3%! Simply amazing. ...

Default looms as US politicians fail to reach deal
thejournal.ie
An 11 th hour solution is the only way that America can now avoid such a calamitous default, which could have the potential to spark another global financial crisis. Last night, the Democrat-led Senate quashed a Republican bill that had been squeezed ...

FF accuses Government of breaking election promises
Irish Examiner
Michael McGrath's comments come following the publication of a document from the EU/IMF, detailing the budgetary targets that need to be met by the end of the year. It outlines how €3.6bn worth of savings can be made through social welfare cuts and tax ...

Why any debt-ceiling deal will squeeze the states
Washington Post (blog)
If the country defaults, the states will be plunged into an immediate financial crisis: Investor confidence in government assets across the board would plummet — including the municipal bonds that states and local governments have traditionally relied ...

US debt ceiling crisis: Treasury is ready for the worst
This is Money
Such a crisis is still seen as unlikely as politicians are expected to reach a last-ditch compromise rather than risk catastrophe, but after the recent financial crisis officials are preparing for the worst. The Treasury declined to comment on any ...

What the US debt ceiling debate means to a Filipino immigrant
Inquirer.net
With a financial crisis threatening millions of Americans, what does this actually mean to an ordinary Filipino immigrant? Jason entered the United States as a registered nurse in 2004. He was able to petition his wife to join him and all their three ...

Do we blame civil servants for resisting PAY cuts?
Times of Swaziland
The secrecy with which things were done, including concealing the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one would have sworn this would not affect anyone. And with reactions from ordinary Swazis, and worst still from some of our ...

Five Best Saturday Columns
The Atlantic Wire
"Many are asking whether a downgrade could itself lead to a financial crisis," observes Neel Kashkari. "With the example of 2008 still fresh in many minds, the question has become: Would it be as bad as the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy? ...

The threat to health from cheap brothels
Sydney Morning Herald
To kick-start business after the global financial crisis and meet a surge in client demand, Sydney brothels staffed exclusively by Asians now offer oral sex without a condom as a standard service. NSW Health confirms rates of sexually transmitted ...

As Predicted, a European IMF Director Complicates Crucial Decisions
The American (blog)
By Claude Barfield In a blog post in early June, I argued that, despite her accomplishments and personal ability, the choice of Christine Lagarde to head the IMF would complicate and undercut IMFdecision making when it came to crucial and difficult ...

Business Update - economy is gradually recovering
SKNVibes.com
BASSETERRE St. Kitts – The International Monetary Fund (IMF), yesterday (July 28) said that the St. Kitts and Nevis economy is gradually recovering from a prolonged recession but fiscal imbalances and structural fragilities pose significant risks to ...

For Investors, Cash Is King
Wall Street Journal
The movement of money, akin to that during the peak of the 2008 financial crisis, is one more sign that skittishness is on the rise as officials in Washington remain deeply divided about ways to reduce the deficit and lift the debt ceiling ahead of the ...

Their View: Tea Party intransigence: How it works, what it means
Silver City Sun News
By Michael L. Hays / For the Sun-News The looming financial crisis from a failure to raise the debt ceiling is changing opinions of the Tea Party. Once approved as a vent for anger, it is now disapproved for its intransigence, which not only threatens ...

Investors head to safety as US default nears
AFP
Worried savers and investors sucked cash out of money market funds, mindful that some of the vehicles, normally seen as foolproof, turned out to be losers in the 2007-2008 financial crisis. But, according to the Investment Company Institute, ...

Poverty grew in Mexico to nearly half the population, study finds
Los Angeles Times
The government of President Felipe Calderon blames the poverty numbers on the global financial crisis that sent Mexico into recession in 2009 and the worldwide hike in food prices. By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times Mexico received more bad economic ...

Money Market Funds and US Default - 4 Reasons Not To Worry
CBS MoneyWatch.com (blog)
Last, the Securities and Exchange Commission revamped the regulations on money market funds in 2010, implementing lessons learned in the financial crisis. Funds are required to invest in higher quality assets with shorter maturities. ...

Dow Slides 4.24% in Worst Week in a Year
Barron's
America may have no other choice than to run on Dunkin' if Washington fails to avert a looming fiscal crisis by the Aug. 2 deadline to lift the debt ceiling and agree on spending cuts. Although House Speaker John Boehner pushed a bill through the lower ...

What's With All the Bernanke Bashing?
New York Times
Mr. Bernanke has worked tirelessly to shepherd the economy through the worstfinancial crisis since the Great Depression, and yet, for all his efforts, seems vastly underappreciated. CNBC recently asked people, “Do you have confidence in the way Ben ...

Marc Beauchamp: Home underwater? Who's to blame?
Record-Searchlight
Last weekend I watched "Inside Job," a recent documentary about the housing bust and the globalfinancial crisis that it triggered in 2008 and that we're still suffering from. It's beautiful to look at. Filmmaker Charles Ferguson has an almost ...

Editorial Notebook: Looming default is a millennial's nightmare
Sacramento Bee
The prospect of default, which at this point is quite real, is terrifying enough. The resulting global financial crisis would disastrously affect people who are in no way responsible for it, or whose only crime was their trust in US financial and ...

MONEY WEEK AHEAD: Win-Win For Treasurys Amid US Debt Showdown
Wall Street Journal
But analysts say investors know that the overall debt problems aren't about the nation's ability to make payments--rather, it is about the government's political posturing in the face of a fiscal crisis--theatrics that have been seen before, ...

If you think the debt crisis is bad now ...
msnbc.com
If it hadn't been for two wars, the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, the housing meltdown, and the subsequent financial crisis and recession, the nation's finances would be in fine condition today. And the only obstacle to getting there again, this narrative ...

CBOE adds to 'tail hedge' gauge to 'fear' index
MarketWatch
"Tail risk" is the term investors sometimes use for the possibility that markets could stage a big plunge like the one seen during the financial crisis in 2008. The measure, called the CBOE VIX Tail Hedge Index, is intended to "help investors control ...

Debt-Ceiling Standoff Weighs On US Commercial Paper Market
Wall Street Journal
Having exited the financial crisis in strong shape and stockpiled record levels of cash, corporate commercial paper is more in demand than bank paper--despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) saying Friday that companies were running into ...